Tax

· VAT to be cut from 17.5% to 15% from December 1 until 2010 - estimated to cost £12.5bn for full year.

· Top rate of income tax to rise to 45% for those earning more than £150,000 - the top 1% of earners - from 2011.

· The £120 increase in income tax allowances announced in May to be made permanent to compensate the 22 million workers who lost out from the controversial abolition of the 10p income tax rate. The tax allowance will also be increased to £145 from next April.

· National insurance contributions to rise by 0.5% on all rates for both employers and staff from 2011.

· Darling moved to halt the exodus of companies overseas by announcing tax exemption on foreign dividends from overseas subsidiaries that could be worth more than £300m to UK companies.

Pensions

· Pensioners to get a one-off payment worth £60, on top of their £10 Christmas bonus, in January. Pensioner couples will be paid £120. The payments will be made on top of the winter fuel payment, currently worth up to £400 a year.

· Pensioners are getting above-inflation rises - up from £124 to £130 a week for couples, and from £89 to £98 a week for individuals.

· The chancellor also highlighted 5.2% increases in the basic state pension and pension credit, payable from April 2009, although these are in line with what was due anyway. The basic state pension will rise from £90.70 to £95.25 for a single pensioner, while the pension credit will increase from £124 to £130 a week.

Unemployment

· Gordon Brown will chair a new national employment partnership to help the unemployed find work with big companies such as Tesco.

· There will be pre-redundancy training through the Train to Regain scheme.

· Extra support for the New Deal scheme and Job Centre Plus.

· Total package of measures to help the unemployed worth £1.3bn.

Child poverty

· Families eligible for child benefit will get their 2009 increases three months earlier than expected - in January rather than in April next year.

· All families will get £20 a week - up from £18.80 now - for their first child. The rate for second and subsequent children will rise from £12.55 to £13.20 a week.

· From April 2009, the child element of tax credits will also go up by £25 more than inflation - a move which had been planned for April 2010 but has now been brought forward 12 months. The chancellor said this meant the credit would be worth £2,235 a year to modest-income families.

· Disabled children will receive a £70 payment in January next year.

Driving

· The increase in vehicle excise duty for polluting cars is still going ahead but will be introduced more gradually. The maximum increase will be £5 next year. From 2010, the maximum increase per car will be £30, not up to £90 as planned.

· Less polluting cars will see no increase or save up to £30.

· Petrol duties are to be raised to offset VAT cuts.

Housing

· Government to seek EU approval for a scheme that would provide guarantees for mortgage-backed securities to help banks lend more.

· Limit at which homeowners can apply for help with mortgage payments if they lose their jobs to be raised to mortgages worth £200,000.

· More than £1bn to be made available to increase funding for social housing.

· Lenders have agreed to wait three months after homeowners fall into financial difficulties before seeking repossession.

· There is also a commitment to consider helping to securitise new mortgages - another attempt to tempt lenders to lend more, and get the wholesale financial markets working again.

Environment

· The government promised to extend the renewables obligation of financial support until 2037.

· Darling also changed airline passenger taxes to increase taxes for long-haul passengers and cut them for short-haul journeys.

· Around £100m of new money would be spent on helping 60,000 low-income homes cut their energy bills through insulation.

Spending

· Spending worth £3bn on capital projects to be brought forward from 2010-11. It will mainly be spent on motorways, social housing, primary and secondary schools, and new energy measures, and is expected to create thousands of jobs.

Economy

· Government's budget deficit to balloon to £78bn in this fiscal year, against Darling's budget forecast of £43bn, and peak next year at £118bn. It will drop back in future years but will still be £54bn in 2014.

· Debt as a proportion of GDP to peak at 57% in 2013-14.

· Government to resume borrowing only to invest by 2015-16.

· Output to fall for first two quarters of 2009 before starting to recover.

· Even after his emergency measures, Darling acknowledged that the credit crunch will push Britain into a deep recession. The economy is forecast to chalk up only 0.75% growth this year, and to contract by 1% in 2009 - which would be the first full year of contraction since 1991.

· Treasury expects little respite until 2010, when it optimistically forecasts GDP growth of 1.75%, still well below its long-term trend.

· It is also well below the forecasts made in the last budget, in which Darling claimed that the UK economy would grow by around 2% this year and 2.5% in 2009 - not fall into recession.

· The government's sustainable investment rule - to keep the public sector borrowing requirement (PSBR) within 40% of GDP - will be broken, and will not be back on track until 2015.

· Inflation to fall to 0.5% next year.

Business

· The unpopular rise in corporation tax from 21p to 22p has been dropped, and firms may now spread tax payments over a longer period.

· The threshold on paying duty on empty properties is also being raised - a measure that could benefit medium-sized firms which are already cutting back on staff and closing factories.